Texas Gov. Rick Perry takes great pride in talking up Texas’ business friendly climate. To hear him tell it, Texas is a magnet for businesses from all over the country (see here). So it came as a bit of a shock to read that online retail giant amazon.com will close a fulfillment center near Dallas in April due to the ”unfavorable regulatory climate” in Texas. In addition to closing the Irving facility, Amazon is scrapping plans to expand in The Lone Star State — home to the world’s 15th-biggest economy — at the cost of more than 1,000 new jobs...

Amazon.com has said it will add 7,000 workers to its payrolls in California, but only if the state agrees to temporarily postpone implementation of a new sales tax on online purchases. According to Reuters, the web services giant also said that it would stop pushing a ballot measure to overturn that new tax if the state waits until 2014 to being collecting revenue from online purchases. The sales tax went into effect July 1. News of the offer broke Thursday night, just before the federal government unveiled Friday morning new labor statistics showing that no net jobs had been created...

Gov. Jerry Brown said this morning that he's leaning against Internet retailer Amazon.com's proposal to put off enforcing a new law that taxes online purchases in exchange for the company launching several California distribution centers that would create several thousand new jobs. "I'm concerned about anything that will reduce revenue going forward because we have a very uncertain economy," the governor said shortly after speaking at an awards ceremony at Sacramento's Radisson Hotel honoring California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation employees. "Look, we need more revenues unless we're going keep curbing schools, courts, corrections."

SACRAMENTO -- The big showdown between traditional retailers and the online sales giant Amazon may dissolve into one big handshake. Amazon is considering backing away from a referendum to overturn a law forcing the company to collect sales taxes if a deal can be worked out with brick-and-mortar retailers and legislative leaders, according to Capitol sources. Amazon would get a two-year reprieve on California taxes but would pledge to support Congressional action on leveling the playing field on Internet sales taxes nationally, according to one person involved in talks between the traditional retailers and Amazon. The negotiations took place Tuesday...

When it comes to avoiding the requirement of collecting sales tax from its consumers, Amazon is not afraid to open its wallet. More than nine months before a proposed June 2012 referendum asking that California’s new Internet sales tax law be overturned, Amazon, the Seattle-based online retailer, has already spent $5.25 million, state records show, more than any company has spent in California this far from a vote in at least a decade. “The initiative and referendum process have been hijacked,” said Loni Hancock, a state senator from Berkeley, who wrote the law Amazon is trying to overturn and who...

Nan Brasmer says she won't buy anything from Amazon anymore. The 72-year-old president of the 950,000-member California Alliance for Retired Americans is among dozens of community leaders planning to gather in Sacramento Monday morning to launch a consumer boycott of the Seattle-based retailer. The boycott -- and an online petition at ThinkBeforeYouClickCA.org -- targets Amazon for its efforts to overturn a new California law that requires internet retailers to collect sales tax from their customers. The boycott is backed by many Demoratic members of the state Legislature, including East Bay Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner and State Senator Loni Hancock, both of...

Congressional Democrats scheme to prop up state spending with online leviesThe class warriors in Congress won’t rest until everything is taxed multiple times. The idea that online retailers aren’t collecting tribute for states in which they have no physical presence galls Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, and Rep. John Conyers, Michigan Democrat. So they dreamed up the Main Street Fairness Act to force Internet shoppers to prop up the big spenders in state government. Crony capitalists are lining up in support. Big players in the online space such as Amazon and others with nationwide physical footprints such as Sears...

Three Democrats have introduced a federal bill that would require online retailers such as Amazon.com to collect states' sales taxes. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill) and Representatives John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) call their proposal that was introduced July 29 the Main Street Fairness Act. Amazon.com, which has been fighting individual states – including California – over efforts to require online retailers to collect state and local sales tax, is supporting the bill, according to a letter to Durbin from Amazon.com Vice President for Global Public Policy Paul Misener.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) will introduce a bill on Friday to allow states to require online retailers to collect sales taxes. The measure has the support of online giant Amazon. Sens. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and Jack Reed (D- R.I.) will co-sponsor the bill, titled the Main Street Fairness Act. Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) will introduce a companion bill in the House. Supporters of the bill argue it will close a loophole that allows online purchases to go untaxed, giving an advantage to online retailers over traditional, brick-and-mortar stores. “Our bill levels the playing field to give...

Amazon.com can begin collecting signatures to overturn California's new online tax collection law after state Attorney General Kamala Harris issued ballot language Monday for the retailer's proposed referendum. The retailer and its online allies will have until Sept. 27 to gather 505,000 signatures to qualify the referendum for the ballot. Should it qualify, the state would have to suspend its new sales tax law until voters decide on the matter next June.

Financially, the so-called "Amazon tax" is a relatively tiny piece of the budget package that Democratic legislators and Gov. Jerry Brown enacted last month. Politically, however, it's a very big deal. The budget trailer bill would compel Internet retailers to collect sales taxes, notwithstanding a U.S. Supreme Court decision that constricts states' powers to do so. Democrats like it because it would raise some money, and California's retailers such as Wal-Mart like it because it would make Amazon, Overstock, et al., less competitive. Amazon has severed its relationships with California "affiliates" and filed a referendum petition that, if it makes...

...The referendum moves to overturn this law in its entirety, allowing affiliates to get back into business with their respective online retailers within 90 days of the referendum’s passage. In order for the referendum to appear on the next state-wide ballot, 504,760 must be collected from California residents. The Internet tax law has already proved to be harmful in California. In order to avoid paying for the unconstitutional tax, online retailers have already started cutting ties with their in-state ad affiliates. Many affiliates, whose income is dependent upon their relationship with online retailers, have already stated their intentions to move...

Amazon.com, in a fresh attack on California's new online sales tax law, is pushing a ballot referendum to have the law repealed. The Internet retailer Monday called it "a referendum on jobs and investment in California." The effort comes two weeks after the law was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. It requires online merchants to collect sales tax on goods purchased by Californians. Amazon hasn't been collecting the tax. The Seattle retailer responded the day the law took effect by severing ties with its 10,000 California affiliates – individuals, businesses and nonprofits that earned commissions by referring customers to Amazon....

In addition, South Korea will create a cloud-based server system for its schools that allows students to download textbooks on their tablets Mobile devices have become a crucial part of everyday life for many people. More recently, tablets have gained popularity as new models, such as Apple's iPad 2 and Samsung's Galaxy Tab, have upped the mobile experience. Furthermore, tablets are not only being used for entertainment purposes. More and more businesses and schools are replacing textbooks and print manuals with tablets. For instance, Alaska Airlines replaced its flight manuals with iPads, and American Airlines is looking to adopt the...

So, I went online Friday looking to buy a copy of John Kenneth Galbraith's "The Affluent Society & Other Writings, 1952-1967." Thought it might be timely to revisit the Harvard economist's distinction between "private affluence" and "public squalor." Barnes & Noble's website was selling it for $26.53. Total, which included California sales tax: $28.79. "Total Before Tax" at Amazon.com: $26.40. "Estimated Tax To Be Collected: $0.00."At Overstock.com, I could still buy furniture and various knickknacks free of the 7.25 percent tax, even though California's law mandating out-of-state Internet retailers to start collecting the taxes was now in effect. In other...

Online retail giant Amazon.com is threatening to pull its California affiliates, as efforts to tax online purchases in the state gains steam. In an email to Amazon Associates who are located in California, Amazon said that it will terminate the associates program for California-based participants, as of the date of any law on the issue becomes effective. The move would not be the first for Amazon, which has been fighting a running battle with states, who have been aggressively trying to tax purchases made through the e-commerce giant. One side effect of the aggressive tax efforts by states--which might have...

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law California’s tax on Internet sales through affiliate advertising which will immediately cut small-business website revenue 20% to 30%, experts say. The bill, AB 28X, takes effect immediately. The state Board of Equalization says the tax will raise $200 million a year, but critics claim it will raise nothing because online retailers will end their affiliate programs rather than collect the tax. Amazon has already emailed its termination of its affiliate advertising program with 25,000 websites

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law California's tax on Internet sales through affiliate advertising which will immediately cut small-business website revenue 20% to 30%, experts say. The bill, AB 28X, takes effect immediately. The state Board of Equalization says the tax will raise $200 million a year, but critics claim it will raise nothing because online retailers will end their affiliate programs rather than collect the tax. "This law won't impact Amazon that much but it is a crisis for website owners who make revenue by placing ads on their websites for thousands of online retailers," Madigan said. "Most...